Nilbar Güreş

Nilbar Güreş

Is a Kurdish-Turkish artist and performer born in Istanbul in 1977 who lives and works in Vienna.

Elements of displacement, compression and overdetermination from the realm of dream psychology are combined in Nilbar Güreş's works with the subversive power ...

... of witticism. Topics that the Turkish-born artist negotiates in her works include gender conventions, feminism, the relationship between women of different generations and the image of Muslim women in Europe, as well as the dialectic of showing and concealing/disguising and queer identities. The basis for this is extensive research and field work. The artist ventures into different milieus and observes mechanisms that limit individual modes of expression, as well as exit strategies.Nilbar Güreş made her debut in 2008 in a group exhibition in Istanbul entitled "Notausgang". "Çirçir", a series of staged photographs, was displayed at the 6th Berlin Biennale in 2010. Among the protagonists of the series are women from her own family. The scene is the eponymous district of Istanbul.The artistic media that Güreş uses include photographs, drawings, videos, performances and sculptures. Her artistic work is unmistakably informed by political activism. A recurring stylistic device she employs are subtle distracting elements and witty yet cryptic undertones. For example, group portraits may have too many hands on closer inspection, or a belt with buckle may lead a complicated life of its own as a cross between a knitted accessory and a luring reptile, as in the ambiguous sculpture "Double Head Snake Queer Desire in the World" of 2015.